1993 Cinder Cone. Also (obvs) the titanium Hei Hei, but the Cinder Cone was frustratingly just-out-of-reach rather than pie-in-the-sky. Bought a GT Pantera instead which is still in use, but had 22 years worth of *sigh* for the sake of not finding an extra £150….
A Cannondale not too dissimilar to this one, there was an ad running in a bike mag (whatever cycling plus was before it was cycling plus) and it blew me away, I was used to gas pipe Raleigh bikes and this was made out of aluminum(sic). It might as well have been made by NASA. It was one of the things that drew me away from the road to mtb, the leaps and bounds the tech was taking whereas road bikes were stuck in the 70’s. Ended up my first bike was a Dale and I was a fanboi pretty much for the whole of my early mountain biking days. Funnily enough its all arse for elbow now as I love steel bikes and whilst alu has its place there ain’t no love.
Had zero clue about bikes when I started riding, it was almost by accident I bought a MTB for the sake of having a bike and the bug bit.
About a year later ‘Roam’ came out, and I desperately wanted a Demo 8, I kind of assumed owning it would automatically and instantly change me from a wobbling around Afan on my GT to hitting 40ft doubles.
I asked about one at my LBS, they looked me up and down, looked at my crappy GT wearing bald tyres and my £10 mushroom helmet and gently talked me out of it, and anyway – at the time whoever was in charge of Spesh in the UK had decided that we didn’t need Demos so they only imported a handful every year.
I bought a Enduro, it had the SAME HEADTUBE! It was great, but I reckon it took me 2 years to get good enough to use any of its potential.
1993 Cinder Cone. Also (obvs) the titanium Hei Hei, but the Cinder Cone was frustratingly just-out-of-reach rather than pie-in-the-sky. Bought a GT Pantera instead which is still in use, but had 22 years worth of *sigh* for the sake of not finding an extra £150….
Same, I also wanted the hei hei. Worked my arse off on paper rounds and got myself a lava dome instead. I still have it, and ride it, to this day.
Can’t link on the phone, but an alpine stars Al mega xt with the e-stays.
After that, an orange clockwork. However this one I actually had. Bloody lovely and I only sold it 5 years ago, after many many miles and years of abuse (fun)
After getting completely bitten by the MTB bug after buying a second hand Falcon Descender in 1993, I just blew mine & Mrs Mc’s holiday fund on a totally blinged-up Cannondale M800 (Who couldn’t fall for a bike called the “Beast of the East”)
And when I say “blinged-up, I mean loads of PURPLE anodised bike jewelery, mmmmm !!
Al
I always wanted a Cannondale SuperV. I managed to get a Raven when I was working at a bike shop. Had to work a lot of Sunday’s to pay that one off. I later bought another one many years later, but it wasn’t as good as my memories
Flickr on the iPad is stopping me linking to photos…….
jimmy – Member
Anything from the classic Raleigh range of c.1989, from Lizard to Mustang to Yukon, Apex, the Land Rover one. I got the Lizard.
Landrover one was the Discovery
My first ‘proper’ bike, can remember like it was yesterday riding it back from Birkenhead Cycle Exchange with my dad jogging alongside
It still sits in the shed at my parents and my dad occasionally takes it for a spin
I lusted after the titanium team raleighs of Baker, Gould and Tomac
Once I started properly reading the mags it was all of the above, Pace, Ritchey, Fat Chance, Cindercone, Orange P7
Eventually in 95 went to buy, for my 21st a Clockwork Orange frame but the guy in sShockwave talked me into getting a Voodoo as they had just started importing them. It was an awesome bike that’s still going strong today
Shamed to say I wanted a Raleigh Activator. Thankfully I didn’t get one.
Instead I ended up with a GT arrowhead and proceeded to upgrade everything on it.
That has never ended, bike building and upgrading has continued.
However I did recently get hold of a GT STS, which had I known about them when I started I would have been chasing from the start.
Couldn’t afford magazines (fortunately) so just rode bikes instead of developing a bike fetish til the mid 90s, when I quite fancied (and almost got the funds together for) a Voodoo Bantu